Dole plc

I'll call over to Head of Investor Relations with Dole PLC, James O'Regan.

Thank you. Welcome, everybody, and thank you for taking the time to join our third quarter 2023 Earnings Conference call and webcast. Joining me on the call today is our Chief Executive Officer, Rory Byrne, our Chief Operating Officer, Johan Linden, and our Chief Financial Officer, Jacinta Devine. During this call, we'll be referring to presentation slides to supplement your remarks, and these, along with our earnings release and other related materials, are available on the Investor Relations section of the DOLE PLC website. Please note, our remarks today will include certain forward-looking statements within the provisions of the Federal Security Safe Harbor Law. These reflect circumstances at the time they are made, and the company expressly disclaims any obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements. Actual results or outcomes may differ materially from those that may be expressed or implied due to a wide range of factors, including those set forth in our SEC filings and press releases. Information regarding the use of non-GAAP financial measures may be found in our press release, which also includes a reconciliation to the most comparable GAAP measures. With that, I'm pleased to turn today's call over to Rory.

Thank you, James. Welcome, everybody, and thank you for joining us today as we discuss our results for the third quarter. So, turning to slide six and the financial highlights of the third quarter. Well, following on from our good performance for the first half of the year, we are very pleased to report another strong result for the third quarter. We delivered revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth, driven mostly by our two diversified fresh produce segments. Group revenue increased by 4.2%, driven largely by higher pricing, and adjusted EBITDA increased by 7.6%. Adjusted diluted earnings per share was $0.24 for the quarter, compared to $0.28 in the prior year, with a reduction primarily due to higher year-on-year interest expense. We continue to focus on optimising our balance sheet and we are pleased to report that an excess of $45 million cash proceeds were realised from the sale of surplus lands in Hawaii and Honduras in the quarter. Combined with good working capital management across the group, these proceeds contributed to a reduction in our net leverage to 2.4 times at the end of September. So now we turn to slide eight for our operational highlights. Our fresh fruit segment delivered another good result in Q3. The result was driven by a strong performance from our European operations, which continued to benefit from a better supply-demand balance in 23 compared to 2022. In North America, our operations are continuing to perform well in spite of intense competition in the marketplace, higher sourcing costs, and the impact of lower commercial cargo profitability. As always, supply and demand dynamics in the banana market, and to a lesser extent the pineapple market, remain important variables as we approach the end of 2023. Weather remains the most important variable we're monitoring, and the impact of El Niño in particular. Very high levels of accumulated rainfall in Ecuador in the year to date, which have impacted production volumes and spot prices. Banana supply is currently tight and is forecast to decrease for next year. state, we've managed the challenges posed by MNEO very well and we remain keenly focused on maintaining good drainage, irrigation and flood protection in our farms and optimising our diverse sourcing base so that we continue to service our customers well even if supply challenges persist. Moving on then to our diversified EMA business, our diversified EMA segment has continued its good momentum from the first half of the year. delivering another quarter of strong revenue and adjusted EBITDA growth. Revenue growth continues to be driven by higher pricing, as well as the expected benefit from foreign currency translation after we experienced translation headwinds in 2022. At current exchange rates, we expect to see a further marginal benefit from FX translation in the fourth quarter. We continue to make good progress by managing our cost base efficiently and delivery of synergies across this segment. We've seen the benefits of our investments in ripening, handling and pre-packing, and these are supporting further expansion across the European marketplace. We also continue to identify and execute on small boats on acquisition opportunities that are delivering value for the group. Altogether, we're expecting to have a positive end to 2023 in this segment. Our diversified America segment had an improved performance in the third quarter, benefiting from a favourable prior year comparative. Improved supply chain conditions in 2023 are allowing for better export conditions and we anticipate a more stable performance in this regard in the fourth quarter also. Our performance in the North American market remains robust across most of the commodities in market, driven by stronger pricing, which is offsetting lower volumes and some ongoing challenges in the berry category. Looking ahead to the remainder of the year, we are keenly focused on the start of the Southern Hemisphere export seasons in some of our important categories, such as cherries and grapes, and delivering a strong service to our customers. Turning to the fresh vegetable divisions, as you know, earlier this year we announced our decision to sell our fresh vegetable division to Fresh Express, and the regulatory review is still ongoing. We do need to let that review play out, so we cannot provide any substantive updates today. We do, however, have some concern regarding the length of the regulatory review. While a combination with Fresh Express is still, in our view, the best outcome for all stakeholders, if we are not able to close that transaction due to regulatory reasons or otherwise, we remain committed to exiting the business. We continue to believe that doing so will benefit our strategic priority of accelerating growth in our core business areas. So with that, I'll hand you over to Justin to give the financial review.